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Showing posts from October, 2011

shortest path to the heart

It was a hot afternoon. Tejas had completed an important deliverable at work. His customer had an unusually happy smile that meant things were working beyond expectations. Better yet, this would lead to more work. That ought to have made him happy - he loved more work, more challenges. He exemplified the "ideal employee" that every business wants. However, Tejas wasn't happy at all.  He wasn't able to pinpoint the reason. He was sure he will find it during his post-lunch walk. Today, Tejas was going to cut through a new path through the streets, for a change. As he turned the other direction at the second traffic light and neared a T-junction, he realized things have indeed changed. A lot of buildings in this neighborhood had empty parking lots. Most of them also had signs stating that at least 50% of the space was available for lease. The grass lawns were fresh green, though. A few patches of light green showed where the walking trails had been - another sig

Reality is an Unbox

Our world is increasingly a place where people box everything into nice labels and acquire places, events and things in nice labeled boxes. Modern life, for some, is simply an ever escalating art of creating, sustaining and consuming better and better digital universes filled with better digital boxes. But better, as in " more efficient to produce ", " more efficient to consume ", " more efficient to serve ", " use and throw " with " talk-to-a-child" simple interface . In this world, people are the standard input and standard output - the buy and sell side interfaces - of the box; events are transactions between the box and the box holder. Here, motion is emulated by a switch to a different buy-me box. Relationships are mediated through an emotional attachment to an anonymous box that embraces, extends (and thankfully, not yet managing to 'extinguish') one's identity. People, events and relationships - the soul of bein

He traveled on a stream pipe to heaven.

#include "no_dmr.h" void main(void) {    printf("Goodbye World!\n"); } /* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  * Dennis Ritchie, the man who co-created Unix and gave us the C language  * passed away without as much fanfare as the man who stood on his  * works to create Apple.  * It is hard to imagine a world without Unix and C. These have become the  * foundation for almost every computing device that is now in our reach.  * In some sense, my very life revolves around the side effects of Unix and C,  * as do millions and millions of others who work in a universe driven  * by computing.  * Thanks Ritchie, for making us the beneficiaries of your giftedness and gifts!  */

The Black Swan of computing passes into iImmortality

No question. Steve Jobs is a black swan in computing. It's not an exaggeration - everyone has been, in some way or other, touched by his single minded quest for making people love their devices while they use them for work or play. He beat the odds in many ways. Most notably, he re-shaped two industries, took the same company to super-stardom twice , re-defined what a mobile phone is, and created an entire new market segment within a single year - the iPad. Here's to someone who will always personify "stay hungry, stay foolish" in every sense of his own words.